The Senate met late Friday night into early Saturday morning for the last time before the November elections. And what a way to end this disastrous session.

The Senate overwhelmingly passed the continuing budget resolution which funds the government through March 27, 2013. As we’ve noted all along, this bill increases spending, funds Obamacare, and consummates Obama’s gutting of welfare reform by reauthorizing the TANF program without any restrictions. The CR passed 62-30 with the help of 12 Republicans:

Alexander, L. (TN)

Blunt (MO)

Brown, Scott (MA)

Cochran (MS)

Hoeven (ND)

Hutchison, K. (TX)

Johanns (NE)

Kyl (AZ)

Lugar (IN)

McConnell (KY)

Murkowski, L. (AK)

Wicker (MS)

Before passing the CR, the Senate finally voted on Rand Paul’s amendment to cut off foreign aid for Pakistan, Libya, and Egypt. Only 10 Republicans voted for it!

Crapo (ID)

DeMint (SC)

Grassley (IA)

Lee, M. (UT)

Moran, Jerry (KS)

Paul, Rand (KY)

Risch (ID)

Roberts (KS)

Shelby (AL)

Toomey (PA)

It should be noted that while we strongly support Senator Paul’s effort to cut off aid to our enemies, we are a bit concerned about some of his other foreign policy views. One other thing the Senate voted on before running out of town was a resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that everything must be done to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Rand Paul was the only member to vote no. In doing do he bizarrely noted that “A country that vows to never contain an enemy is a country that vows to always pre-emptively attack.”

The reality is that Iran is our arch enemy in the same way the Soviet Union was in the post WWII era. We don’t need a policy of containment. We need a policy of victory. Rand Paul is on-target regarding the Libyan escapade and even with regards to much of the insanity that is going on in Afghanistan. However, his lack of regard for the threat of Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons is concerning.

We just want to make sure the two policies are not conflated in the minds of conservatives.